Thursday Night Betting

Not much on the card today – Saturday will be busy. On Saturday, here’s the odds we’ll get a chance to look at:

South Carolina vs Florida odds, Boston College vs Florida State odds, Notre Dame vs Navy odds, some NASCAR betting and Lesnar vs Couture odds.

For tonight, though, we have some NBA betting, including the Denver Nuggets @ Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks @ Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons @ Golden State Warriors.

Denver is too much of an underdog. I’ll take them plus the points. Dallas shouldn’t be an underdog in Chicago – they are the better team, so I’ll take them with the points. And for the late game, I’ll god with Detroit. In other words, I like all three road teams.

Sportsbook odds have a light college basketball card but I’ll pass tonight.

NBA Season Approaching; Regular Season Win Totals

The NBA season kicks off in just under one week so don’t forget to visit your local sportsbook and bet on sports, aka bet on your favorite regular season win total. Here are a couple of mine:

Los Angeles Clippers over 34.5 Wins:

The Clip show has had an interesting offseason. They subbed out Corey Maggette and Elton Brand, and brought in Baron Davis and Marcus Camby. Look at this starting five and tell me that this is a sub-.500 team:

G Baron Davis

G Cuttino Mobley

F Al Thornton

F Marcus Camby

C Chris Kaman

That’s pretty solid. Then you throw in the bench, which includes flashy rookie Eric Gordon, Tim Thomas, Ricky Davis and Brian Skinner. That’s not bad. The Clippers will hit the over.

Indiana Pacers under 34.5 Wins:

Does anybody care about the Indiana Pacers anymore? It’s hard for me to get excited about a starting five that has T.J. Ford, Danny Granger, Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy and Jeff Foster. There is no star power on this team, which figures to be a problem on a nightly basis. And if T.J. Ford gets hurt, this team is in some trouble.

Take the under here.

Earl Boykins: Short In Stature, Tall In Stacks

Somebody want to tell me what is wrong with this picture?

Earl Boykins, who was the shortest player in the NBA, is the latest to make a dash for European luxury. He signed a one-year, $3.5 M contract with Italy’s Virtus Bologna, which is probably $3.5 M more than his next best offer in the NBA. Does anyone really care? Somebody call Spudd Webb and Mugsy Bogues out of retirement and tell them there’s money to be made in Italy.

Boykins is now the highest paid player in whatever Italian league Virtus Bologna plays in, which sounds like a log of Bologna to me.

First Josh Childress, then Carlos Arroyo and now they took Earl “The Pearl” Boykins. David Stern better watch out especially if LeBron James is taking Euro offers seriously.

Sacramento Kings Trade Artest, Get Players For Free

Ron Artest is stupid; I’m not breaking any news here.

Just about a month ago, the enigmatic forward could have opted out of his contract and become a free agent. At the point, he could chosen to play for any team that he wanted to (factoring the salary cap into the equation).

But instead of opting out, Artest inexplicably didn’t opt out, meaning he had to stick around in Sacramento. “The Kings have been there for me, so the best I could do is stay in my contract,” he said.

What a gentleman. That lasted about one week as Artest asked for a trade merely weeks after he didn’t opt out.

“I think I made the biggest mistake by staying in my contract and I have to live with it,” Artest said roughly two weeks later.

Ummm….ok. Clearly he’s a little fickle.

From the Kings perspective, they probably anticipated he would opt out anyways, so because he was an idiot, they received Bobby Jackson, the Rockets No. 1 Pick in 2009, Donte Greene and some cap space. That’s what I call making something out of nothing.

The move seems to work out on both sides. The Rockets window to win a championship is roughly two years, so if they won’t lose too much if it fails. But now, they have Championship potential.

Where do you rank the Rockets in the West?

1. Los Angeles Lakers
2. Utah Jazz
3. Houston Rockets
4. New Orleans Hornets
5. San Antonio Spurs

Let’s Talk Sports Betting

It is great to finally get our own blog, about time. BetOnline.com’s Sports Section, entitled Bettor’s Edge, is a tremendous resource we are improving upon every day for all things sports betting. Check back to this blog frequently for our latest thoughts, stats and picks from the world of sports. And then place your bets, people!

So bookmark us and check back here frequently.